scholarly journals Stability of the pH-Dependent Parallel-Stranded d(CGA) Motif

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
E. M. Luteran ◽  
J. D. Kahn ◽  
P. J. Paukstelis

ABSTRACTNon-canonical DNA structures that retain programmability and structural predictability are increasingly being used in DNA nanotechnology applications, where they offer versatility beyond traditional Watson-Crick interactions. The d(CGA) triplet repeat motif is structurally dynamic and can transition between parallel-stranded homo-base paired duplex and anti-parallel unimolecular hairpin in a pH-dependent manner. Here, we evaluate the thermodynamic stability and nuclease sensitivity of oligonucleotides composed of the d(CGA) motif and several structurally related sequence variants. These results show that the structural transition resulting from decreasing the pH is accompanied by both a significant energetic stabilization and decreased nuclease sensitivity as unimolecular hairpin structures are converted to parallel-stranded homo-base paired duplexes. Furthermore, the stability of the parallel-stranded duplex form can be altered by changing the 5′-nucleobase of the d(CGA) triplet and the frequency and position of the altered triplets within long stretches of d(CGA) triplets. This work offers insight into the stability and versatility of the d(CGA) triplet repeat motif and provides constraints for using this pH-adaptive structural motif for creating DNA-based nanomaterials.STATEMENT OF SIGNIFICANCEThis article addresses the stability of the d(CGA) triplet motif and variants in solution. Our study reveals changes in thermodynamic stability and nuclease resistance in response to pH. The identity of the 5′-nucleobase within each triplet and the position and frequency of different triplets within stretches of d(CGA) triplets can tune parallel-stranded duplex stability. This tunability can be used for nanotechnological applications where the specificity of the 5′-nucleobase pairing interaction is used to order of long stretches of d(CGA) triplets. These results can inform the rational design of pH-sensitive structurally switchable DNA-based nanomaterials.

2017 ◽  
Vol 19 (30) ◽  
pp. 19646-19655 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yang Wang ◽  
Sergio Díaz-Tendero ◽  
Manuel Alcamí ◽  
Fernando Martín

A generalized motif model to describe the stability of neutral fullerenes, covering the full range of cage sizes, starting from C60, going through giant fullerenes, and ultimately leading to graphene.


1982 ◽  
Vol 28 (7) ◽  
pp. 897-900 ◽  
Author(s):  
Soo-Young Choo ◽  
Kathryn Vollherbst ◽  
Alec Keith ◽  
Wallace Snipes

1-Adamantanamine and several related compounds were tested for their effect on the lipid-containing bacteriophage PM2. 2-Adamantanol and 1-adamantane methanol were virucidal, while 1-adamantane acetic acid inhibited virus production in a highly pH-dependent manner.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adrian Roitberg ◽  
Pancham Lal Gupta

<div>Human Glycinamide ribonucleotide transformylase (GAR Tfase), a regulatory enzyme in the de novo purine biosynthesis pathway, has been established as an anti-cancer target. GAR Tfase catalyzes the formyl transfer reaction from the folate cofactor to the GAR ligand. In the present work, we study E. coli GAR Tfase, which has high sequence similarity with the human GAR Tfase with most functional residues conserved. E. coli GAR Tfase exhibits structural changes and the binding of ligands that varies with pH which leads to change the rate of the formyl transfer reaction in a pH-dependent manner. Thus, the inclusion of pH becomes essential for the study of its catalytic mechanism. Experimentally, the pH-dependence of the kinetic parameter kcat is measured to evaluate the pH-range of enzymatic activity. However, insufficient information about residues governing the pH-effects on the catalytic activity leads to ambiguous assignments of the general acid and base catalysts and consequently its catalytic mechanism. In the present work, we use pH-replica exchange molecular dynamics (pH-REMD) simulations to study the effects of pH on E. coli GAR Tfase enzyme. We identify the titratable residues governing the pH-dependent conformational changes in the system. Furthermore, we filter out the protonation states which are essential in maintaining the structural integrity, keeping the ligands bound and assisting the catalysis. We reproduce the experimental pH-activity curve by computing the population of key protonation states. Moreover, we provide a detailed description of residues governing the acidic and basic limbs of the pH-activity curve.</div>


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Henrik Pedersen ◽  
Björn Alling ◽  
Hans Högberg ◽  
Annop Ektarawong

Thin films of boron nitride (BN), particularly the sp<sup>2</sup>-hybridized polytypes hexagonal BN (h-BN) and rhombohedral BN (r-BN) are interesting for several electronic applications given band gaps in the UV. They are typically deposited close to thermal equilibrium by chemical vapor deposition (CVD) at temperatures and pressures in the regions 1400-1800 K and 1000-10000 Pa, respectively. In this letter, we use van der Waals corrected density functional theory and thermodynamic stability calculations to determine the stability of r-BN and compare it to that of h-BN as well as to cubic BN and wurtzitic BN. We find that r-BN is the stable sp<sup>2</sup>-hybridized phase at CVD conditions, while h-BN is metastable. Thus, our calculations suggest that thin films of h-BN must be deposited far from thermal equilibrium.


2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Raghavendar Reddy Sanganna Gari ◽  
Joel José Montalvo‐Acosta ◽  
George R. Heath ◽  
Yining Jiang ◽  
Xiaolong Gao ◽  
...  

AbstractConformational changes in ion channels lead to gating of an ion-conductive pore. Ion flux has been measured with high temporal resolution by single-channel electrophysiology for decades. However, correlation between functional and conformational dynamics remained difficult, lacking experimental techniques to monitor sub-millisecond conformational changes. Here, we use the outer membrane protein G (OmpG) as a model system where loop-6 opens and closes the β-barrel pore like a lid in a pH-dependent manner. Functionally, single-channel electrophysiology shows that while closed states are favored at acidic pH and open states are favored at physiological pH, both states coexist and rapidly interchange in all conditions. Using HS-AFM height spectroscopy (HS-AFM-HS), we monitor sub-millisecond loop-6 conformational dynamics, and compare them to the functional dynamics from single-channel recordings, while MD simulations provide atomistic details and energy landscapes of the pH-dependent loop-6 fluctuations. HS-AFM-HS offers new opportunities to analyze conformational dynamics at timescales of domain and loop fluctuations.


2021 ◽  
Vol 28 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Tomasz Klaus ◽  
Sameer Deshmukh

AbstractTherapeutic antibodies are instrumental in improving the treatment outcome for certain disease conditions. However, to enhance their efficacy and specificity, many efforts are continuously made. One of the approaches that are increasingly explored in this field are pH-responsive antibodies capable of binding target antigens in a pH-dependent manner. We reviewed suitability and examples of these antibodies that are functionally modulated by the tumor microenvironment. Provided in this review is an update about antigens targeted by pH-responsive, sweeping, and recycling antibodies. Applicability of the pH-responsive antibodies in the engineering of chimeric antigen receptor T-cells (CAR-T) and in improving drug delivery to the brain by the enhanced crossing of the blood–brain barrier is also discussed. The pH-responsive antibodies possess strong treatment potential. They emerge as next-generation programmable engineered biologic drugs that are active only within the targeted biological space. Thus, they are valuable in targeting acidified tumor microenvironment because of improved spatial persistence and reduced on-target off-tumor toxicities. We predict that the programmable pH-dependent antibodies become powerful tools in therapies of cancer.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hye Ryoung Heo ◽  
Kye Il Joo ◽  
Jeong Hyun Seo ◽  
Chang Sup Kim ◽  
Hyung Joon Cha

Abstract On-chip glycan biosynthesis is an effective strategy for preparing useful complex glycan sources and for preparing glycan-involved applications simultaneously. However, current methods have some limitations when analyzing biosynthesized glycans and optimizing enzymatic reactions, which could result in undefined glycan structures on a surface, leading to unequal and unreliable results. In this work, a novel glycan chip was developed by introducing a pH-responsive i-motif DNA linker to control the immobilization and isolation of glycans on chip surfaces in a pH-dependent manner. On-chip enzymatic glycosylations were optimized for uniform biosynthesis of cancer-associated Globo H hexasaccharide and its related complex glycans through stepwise quantitative analyses of isolated products from the surface. Successful interaction analyses of the anti-Globo H antibody and MCF-7 breast cancer cells with on-chip biosynthesized Globo H-related glycans demonstrated the feasibility of the structure-switchable DNA linker-based glycan chip platform for on-chip complex glycan biosynthesis and glycan-involved applications.


2018 ◽  
Vol 231 ◽  
pp. 364-373 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nikolai P. Bityutskii ◽  
Kirill L. Yakkonen ◽  
Anastasiya I. Petrova ◽  
Kseniia A. Lukina ◽  
Alexey L. Shavarda

2014 ◽  
Vol 4 (6) ◽  
pp. 20140031 ◽  
Author(s):  
Louis Reese ◽  
Anna Melbinger ◽  
Erwin Frey

The cytoskeleton is regulated by a plethora of enzymes that influence the stability and dynamics of cytoskeletal filaments. How microtubules (MTs) are controlled is of particular importance for mitosis, during which dynamic MTs are responsible for proper segregation of chromosomes. Molecular motors of the kinesin-8 protein family have been shown to depolymerize MTs in a length-dependent manner, and recent experimental and theoretical evidence suggests a possible role for kinesin-8 in the dynamic regulation of MTs. However, so far the detailed molecular mechanisms of how these molecular motors interact with the growing MT tip remain elusive. Here we show that two distinct scenarios for the interactions of kinesin-8 with the MT tip lead to qualitatively different MT dynamics, including accurate length control as well as intermittent dynamics. We give a comprehensive analysis of the regimes where length regulation is possible and characterize how the stationary length depends on the biochemical rates and the bulk concentrations of the various proteins. For a neutral scenario, where MTs grow irrespective of whether the MT tip is occupied by a molecular motor, length regulation is possible only for a narrow range of biochemical rates, and, in particular, limited to small polymerization rates. By contrast, for an inhibition scenario, where the presence of a motor at the MT tip inhibits MT growth, the regime where length regulation is possible is extremely broad and includes high growth rates. These results also apply to situations where a polymerizing enzyme like XMAP215 and kinesin-8 mutually exclude each other from the MT tip. Moreover, we characterize the differences in the stochastic length dynamics between the two scenarios. While for the neutral scenario length is tightly controlled, length dynamics is intermittent for the inhibition scenario and exhibits extended periods of MT growth and shrinkage. On a broader perspective, the set of models established in this work quite generally suggest that mutual exclusion of molecules at the ends of cytoskeletal filaments is an important factor for filament dynamics and regulation.


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